Eureka moments and exercise

Although I had planned to post on this topic later, after I had added musings on other creativity topics, I am bringing up the connection between exercise and creativity now because the connection has recently been pointed out in two blogs that I read on a regular basis. My friend Chad Darnell is a fabulous writer and is a funny, funny person (particularly if you like a particularly snarky kind of humor). To catch up on his "Adventures in Hollywoodland" go here http://chaddarnell.typepad.com/runchadrun2/ . Look for his entry where he got a great idea for his screenplay while hiking in Runyan Canyon, January 26.

The other blog that I read on a regular basis in which a connection was made between creativity and exercise is Meg Cabot's. She's the author of many fun books, the most famous of which is the Princess Diaries. Her blog can be found here http://www.megcabot.com/diary/ . Check out the entry from Jan. 27.

(Soon, I hope to know how to add links without having to copy out the whole link. But tonight, I feel like discussion rather than learning blog how-tos.)

As M.C. (as I will refer to Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi from now on, because even after first reading his work 10 years ago, I still have to look up how he spells his last name) explains, in his chapter titled "Creative Surroundings," "unusual and beautiful surroundings--stimulating, serene, majestic views imbued with natural and historical suggestions, may in fact help us see situations more holistically and from novel viewpoints. How one spends time in a beautiful natural setting seems to matter as well. Just sitting and watching is fine, but taking a lesiurely walk seems to be even better." (p. 137) He goes on to explain why walking (or riding a bike like Meg) is so important. "When we think intentionally, thoughts are forced to follow a linear, logical--hence predictable--direction. But when attention is focused on the view during a walk, part of the brain is left free to pursue associations that normally not made." (p. 138)

Seems EM Forster had something there in A Room with a View. And now all of us who kind of hate to exercise have a better reason to do so (as better health doesn't seem to be enough of an excuse)--our creative efforts will improve!

What is Creativity?

Have you ever read the book Creativity by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi? It is one of my favorites and I refer to it often when I am "musing on creativity." The book is a look at

what creative people are like, how the creative process works, and what conditions encourage or hinder the generation of original ideas.

One of the important points of the book is Csikszentmihaly's distinction between Creativity and creativity. Early in the book, he writes of "3 different phenomena that can legitimately be called" creativity. I'll quote from the book here:

• the first usage, widespread in ordinary conversation, refers to persons who express unusual thoughts, who are interesting and stimulating--in short, to people who appear to be unusually bright.
• the second way the term can be used is to refer to people who experience the world in novel and original ways....I refer to such people as personally creative
• the final use of the term designates individuals who, like Leonardo, Edison, Picasso, or Einstein, have changed our culture in some important respect. They are the creative ones without qualifications.

While I can agree with him that those individuals like Leonardo, Edison, Picasso and the ones he writes about in his book are fascinating, and indeed changed the culture, I plan to deal in this blog with personal creativity and issues surrounding it. Particularly fascinating and important to me are what creative people are like, how the creative process works, and what conditions encourage or hinder the generation of original ideas. Only for me, the defiinition of creative people are those that work in some way to create an original or artistic product--a poem, a book, an essay, a painting, a photograph, a quilt. What do they have in common? What led to the differences in how they express their creativity? What is a creative state of mind? These are things to explore.